Every bus ride is an adventure. Mainly because it's totally impossible to predict what’s going to happen. But one thing’s for sure: it can happen everything when we’re among all these crazy road outlaws...which is everyday! Today I got a mini van to go to Kanding. After a couple of hours the big decision: left or right? Which is exactly the same as asking "Wrong" or “right”? But the answer was quick: “Wrong”! So we followed the left road, what one expected to be the clear road to get to Kanding. After a little while, the adventure began. The road just ahead of us was being paved with tar. And what happens when the road is being paved with tar just as we wanted to get by? We wait, just in the side of the road (really narrow piece of ground there) until the tar paving machine passes by so that we can continue in the same road. May the really hot burning tar affect the tire resistance? Of course not, a big round “there’ll be no problem” is just enough. Ah and in the meantime if the workers want to have lunch what do we do? We patiently wait

. Going back to find another road (the “right” and right option)? Naaa...that’s for babies. On the other hand everybody knows that going back would be a sign of weakness...and the mister driver wouldn’t want to wear that shirt. So we waited. One hour. And then, straight ahead to that newly paved road, just before the local mayor inaugurates it.

Was him sure that there would not be any further problems or road blocks? Of course not. Just 30 minutes until our next hurdle. We stopped again. There were some trucks down the road, building something the driver didn’t let us see. And, in this case, this would be very important as it may have saved us from the next iron man prove: to pull out the vehicle from a giant puddle of mud. And, again, the gentleman decided to take a left and go up the small hill and instantly got stuck in the mud. Only after I was totally full of mud from head to toe (no, no sad pictures available) we managed to get the van back on track. I was so nasty. One hour was what it took us. I just wanted to go to kanding to find some hot water! Which I did!

Kanding is a city in the middle of a valley, down below. It is famous for a song that was inspired by the surrounding nature and beauty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJqTJm4-Mok&feature=related) . Apart from it, another city, on our way to somewhere else. In fact, this stop was made necessary because there were land slides (caused by the rain) that closed two of the main roads to get to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province. This made this city “visitable”. Otherwise, we would just see it from the mountain top, on our way to Chengdu.